Does It Fit?

[Water Bob]

Is there a quickie rule anywhere that I can use to determine whether found armor on dead foes will fit a character well if he scavages some?

And, realistically, how likely is armor to fit another person? I would think that the "stiffer" armor is, the more likely it will not fit another warrior. For example, leather is much more likely to fit someone else than plate.

In my game, I used a quicky, simple rule that I made up on the spot, though I'm not happy with it. I basically compared the two characters, the dead guy and the PC, looking at the physical stats of each, adding the variance together to come up with a d20 target number. The PC having a lower stat reduced the target, making the armor "big". If the PC had a stat that was higher than the deceased, then that would make the armor tight.

A quick comparison and a quick d20 roll determined whether the armor could would fit.

As I said, I'm not that happy with it. It's just something I made up on the fly.




So, I'm looking for a quickie rule someplace that I can use. I need to consider damage to the armor, too. There may be a hole in it.

Any direction to point me at?

 

[kitcik]

Quick rule --> same/similar race = it fits

 

[WHW4]

I don't have an actual rule to point to, unfortunately. What we have always done is thus:

Same race/body shape/size category it fits. Full-plate is the exception; you have to have that re sized. Generally we follow the same 1 day/per 1k gold (ala magic item creation) to see how long that process takes.

We don't deal with damaged armor. Although I suppose you could use the broken condition from PF, if that floats your boat.

 

[Nebten]

A set of armor in d20 is made to fit the overall "size" of the race, such as Small, Medium, or Large. This is how it is priced in the PHB. The only time there is a cost to adjustment of armor is with Full Plate which is 2d4x100gp. This is the only time that cost is directly related to price related resizing of armor.

Outisde of this is up to DM discression and PC imagination: such as finding a small +2 deathward armor and resizing it through skills and magic to make it fit a giant.

Damage of the armor will depend if actually has hit point damage to the armor. Most games don't even factor this in unless there is a sunder-happy barbarian. Most games overcome this with the Mending spell or Craft (Armor) skill.

Keep it simple. Your players will thank you for it.

 

[Greenfield]

Under the description of Full Plate, from the SRD:

Each suit of full plate must be individually fitted to its owner by a master armorsmith, although a captured suit can be resized to fit a new owner at a cost of 200 to 800 (2d4x100) gold pieces.

Under the Treasure rules, it says that mundane armor is sized to fit its owner, while magical armor will resize itself to its wearer's size.

My own experience with armor, limited as it is, is that hard armor, such as breastplates, need to be fitted to the person. If I had to make a rule for fitting found armor to a new owner, I'd compare race, Strength and Constitution. The closer these three match between the old owner and the new, the better the armor will fit.

When the hard armors don't fit, the wearer will get what are known as "Armor bites", bruises on their arms and/or legs from hitting the edges of the hard plates during movement. Some adjustments can be made by tightening or loosening straps, or shifting the padding a bit, but if you wear a hard armor that isn't right for you, you'll know it and show it at the end of the day.

Softer armors, and Chain in particular, are almost a "One size fits all". I own a chain shirt IRL, and it's been placed on men eight inches taller than me and half again my weight, and it fits. It's also been placed on skinny teenagers a foot shorter than me, and it fits. Scale has a similar property.

If I had to make a penalty for badly fitting armor, I'd increase the Armor Check penalty based on how bad a fit it is.

Difference between races of the same size category should be 3 "points". Each point of difference in Con and/or Strength would be a point. Total penalty equals total points of difference/3, rounded normally.

There may be a formal rule in the Arms and Equipment handbook. I'd look there if I needed something official.

 

[RogueInRouge]

Does it fit? I'm looking for a quickie... There may be a hole in it.

Since I am only in Jr. High, lining up these kinds of questions together tests the limits of my self-control.

Desperately trying to stay on-topic I will just second what others have said: RAW distinguishes between armor size categories (Tiny, Small, Medium, Large, etc.) but that's about it. I took a look in the Arms and Equipment handbook at [MENTION=6669384]Greenfield[/MENTION]'s suggestion, but didn't see anything there about sizing or fit either.

If you want to model armor fit beyond size category, and aren't happy with just a simple d100 roll, then your homebrew rule sounds like a pretty good tradeoff between "realism" and playability. (One thought: you mentioned comparing the "physical stats" of the PC and NPC. Probably goes without saying but inches of height difference would be at least as important as points of difference in STR/CON.)

 

[airwalkrr]

The standard rule in d20 is that armor made for one creature of the same type (e.g. humanoid) and same size fits all creatures that have the same type and size. Thus, a human can wear armor made for an orc and vice versa. A halfling can wear armor made for a goblin and vice versa. However, a human could not wear armor made for a hound archon as they are of a different type even though they are the same size. The only exception to this rule is full plate, as both Nebten and Greenfield have correctly pointed out above. Magical armor resizes itself to fit the new wearer. It might strain believability to see a halfling try on magical armor sized for an ogre though. But if you are okay with the rule that "it's magic" then I say go with it. It is expedient, and it is only a game.

 

[Water Bob]

My game is 100% human, and there really are no magical weapons or equipment. Therefore, when the word "race" is used, it is not meant to differ between, say, elves and dwarves. It's meant to differ between, say, Chinese or Englishman.

With no magical weapons, the prizes become better weapons and armor--and stuff that is in good shape.

So, my rule needs to be a little more persnickety than the prevailing words of wisdom here directed towards standard D&D.

What I'm looking for is a way to figure sizes between humans.

 

[Michael Silverbane]

Something that you could do, is to make body type/size depend on the physical attributes.

Add together Strength and Con, then subtract Dexterity. If the values are within X amount of each other, the armor fits well. Otherwise it fits poorly...

 

[was]

As long as it is from a humanoid, we typically class them according to size: small, medium and large. We figure that there is enough play in the buckles, straps..etc..that allow the armor to be adjusted to fit different people.